Using the training procedure introduced by von Frisch in 1919, we tested the ability of free-flying honeybees to discriminate a conditioning odor from an array of 44 simultaneously presented substances. The stimuli included homologous series of aliphatic alcohols, aldehydes and ketones, isomeric forms of some of these substances, as well as several terpenes and odor mixtures, and thus comprised...

Honeybees learn color information of rewarding flowers and recall these memories in future decisions. For fine color discrimination, bees require differential conditioning with a concurrent presentation of target and distractor stimuli to form a long-term memory. Here we investigated whether the long-term storage of color information shapes the neural network of microglomeruli in the mushroom b...

Royal jelly (RJ) produced by honeybees has been reported to possess diverse health-beneficial properties and has been implicated to have a function in longevity across diverse species as well as honeybees. 10-Hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA), the major lipid component of RJ produced by honeybees, was previously shown to increase the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans. The objective of this stud...

Many insects use the polarization pattern of the sky for obtaining compass information during orientation or navigation. E-vector information is collected by a specialized area in the dorsal-most part of the compound eye, the dorsal rim area (DRA). We tested honeybees' capability of learning certain e-vector orientations by using a classical conditioning paradigm with the proboscis extension re...

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) undergo iron biomineralization, providing the basis for magnetoreception. We showed earlier the presence of superparamagnetic magnetite in iron granules formed in honeybees, and subscribed to the notion that external magnetic fields may cause expansion or contraction of the superparamagnetic particles in an orientation-specific manner, relaying the signal via cytoskel...

Honeybee (Apis mellifera) imagines are resistant to the Gram-positive bacterium Paenibacillus larvae (P. larvae), causative agent of American foulbrood (AFB), whereas honeybee larvae show susceptibility against this pathogen only during the first 48 h of their life. It is known that midgut homogenate of adult honeybees as well as a homogenate of aged larvae exhibit strong anti-P. larvae activit...

In honeybees fast and efficient exploitation of nectar and pollen sources is achieved by persistent endothermy throughout the foraging cycle, which means extremely high energy costs. The need for food promotes maximisation of the intake rate, and the high costs call for energetic optimisation. Experiments on how honeybees resolve this conflict have to consider that foraging takes place in a var...

Neonicotinoid insecticides are now the most widely used insecticides in the world. 10 Previous studies have indicated that sublethal doses of neonicotinoids impair learning, memory 11 capacity, foraging and immunocompetence in honeybees (Apis mellifera). Despite this, few 12 studies have been carried out on the molecular effects of neonicotinoids. In this study, we focus on 13 the second-genera...

Honeybees form complex societies with a division of labor for reproduction, nutrition, nest construction and maintenance, and defense. How does it evolve? Tasks performed by worker honeybees are distributed in time and space. There is no central control over behavior and there is no central genome on which selection can act and effect adaptive change. For 22 years, we have been addressing these...

The invasion of Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) in the Americas provides a window of opportunity to study the dynamics of secondary contact of subspecies of bees that evolved in allopatry in ecologically distinctive habitats of the Old World. We report here the results of an 11-year mitochondrial DNA survey of a feral honeybee population from southern United States (Texas). The mitoch...